


When It's Time

by Callaeidae3



Series: When It's Time [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt Shiro (Voltron), Post-Season 7 Episode 13, Post-season 7, Recovery, Season 7 Episode 13, Season 7 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-16
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-06-28 08:04:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15703176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: As the paladins recover, Keith lingers in unconsciousness and the other four wake.Shiro deals with intrusive memories that aren't really his.





	1. When It's Time

**Author's Note:**

> Season 7... I loved it!! [SPOILERS AHEAD] Ohhhh, that ending, though? I thought they were gone. The only thing that convinced be otherwise was that the Lions' eyes were still glowing as they fell. Argh, but was my stomach churning and my heart pounding or what?! The music gets me every time I watch it... 
> 
> (I am working on Part 4 of my Under the Radar series! Unfortunately, the plot cats came in and chased away the plot bunnies so I'm at a bit of an impasse with writing the first chapter :P Nevertheless, I shall prevail! I'm sure the bunnies are plotting how to chase away the plot cats already...)

 

…

…

...

Nothing.

...

….

No, black.

_Black._

 

 

…

Somewhere, noise. Too faint to make its source, which direction it’s coming from. Is it…

Is it real?

…

 

The stillness prevails. It’s quiet. Silent, almost. But not quiet. There’s a black noise…Black noise.

 

Voices.

Nothingness.

 

 

The darkness is consoling, protecting him.

He can’t remember why…or where…or what. All he knows is Black.

 

His body won’t let him wake. Not enough quintessence to sustain him.

He needs time.

 

Black.

 

 

 

 

\----

In another room, family gathers.

Lance still finds it hard to believe he’s home. Two of the people he left behind are no longer able to be with him, but it’s home nonetheless. It’s a welcome surprise to find all their faces in front of his when he opens his eyes, to hear the familiar screeches of his niece and nephew in his ears again. To be still alive for that…

Tired as he is, he can’t resist the smile that tugs on his lips.

 

 

Pidge is disorientated. She tries to remember how she got to…wherever she is, but she can’t. Had she fallen asleep while messing around with her tech again? Why is paladin armour so light? Where’s Green at and –

Why is her dog licking her hand?

Matt laughs.

Pidge is fully awake now. Ignoring the headache, she jolts upright and turns stiffly to find her brother – her older older brother – standing there by her bedside. He’s holding hands with a rebel who Pidge recognises as one of his crew members. In the corner of the room, Mum hides a tearful, relieved smile behind her hands.

“Welcome back, Katie,” Matt says.  

 

 

Hunk is the third to come around.

His parents were there when Yellow crashed. They were there when the medics pulled him out. They’ve been there at his bedside, waiting, waiting for the chance to meet their son again after so, so long…

He’s been awake less than a minute before the room is full of tears, Hunk included. His head hurts and his heart aches and his body feels like lead, but he’s so incredibly happy that he’s almost able to forget all about it. The spike of concussion at the loud reunion reminds them to tone it down, just a notch.

Shiro comes in, making his rounds. His face is strained, but some of the weariness eases when he sees Hunk awake. As it turns out, Lance and Pidge have been up for a fair while. Allura’s awake too, just fairing a little worse on the fatigue spectrum. Hunk notices Shiro leaves mentioning Keith until last.

“And Keith?” Hunk prompts, voice soft.

Shiro looks down at the floor. “I’m going to see him now.”

“…and how are you doing?”

Shiro closes his eyes a moment and takes a deep breath. “You all gave me quite the scare. I…I’m a bit worn out, as everybody is, but I’m getting there. Thanks for asking.”

They both know that’s only half the question answered, but Hunk doesn’t want to push Shiro. It’s clear he’s having a hard time keeping it together. Now that the adrenaline of the battle has worn off entirely, it seems like the aftermath is taking a heavy toll on him. If he could, Hunk would be out of bed and giving Shiro a great big hug. Thankfully his parents do it for him.

“Tell Keith I said ‘hi’,” Hunk says as Shiro makes his way out.

There’s a flash of worry in Shiro’s eyes as he smiles. “I will.”

 

 

 

A lot of excited squeaking and a mispronounced Altean word greet Allura as she wakes. Coran’s there, too, if the swathes of orange in her fuzzy vision are anything to go by.

“Ah, Princess!” Coran exclaims. “I’m very glad you’re awake! I was afraid I was going to have to shoo the mice away if they wouldn’t leave you to rest in peace.”

Allura blinks a few times. Her vision clears in time to catch Romelle’s raised eyebrow.

“Uh, Coran?” Romelle says. “I do believe there is a phrase they use here on Earth that is ‘rest in peace’ and it means to wish someone a restful afterlife, thereby implying they have…passed away.”

“What? But Allura is okay. I mean, it was a little ‘hairy’ for a while – if I’m using _that_ expression correctly – but you’re in the clear now, Princess!”

Romelle is appalled. “Are you trying to freak her out? She’s just woken up and here we are talking of dea- depressing things. Perhaps we could not?”

“Well,” Coran says. “You were the one to clarify the term ‘rest in peace’.”

Allura chuckles at their banter. “Please. I’m okay.”

“Sorry, Princess. We’ve just, uh, been rather worried. That explosion knocked the Lions right out of the sky. Your quintessence levels were dangerously low and it…well I admit, it gave us quite a scare. I’m glad you’re doing well.”

Allura smiles weakly. “Thank you, Coran. Romelle.” She lifts her hands into her lap and cups them around the mice. “And you four, as always.”

 

 

 

_Two days later_

The room is dim. Shiro’s head is swarming with words for his upcoming speech, loud in the contrasting stillness of the room. He steps away from the doorway and pushes the speech to the back of his mind.

It’s eerie, seeing Keith like this. Motionless. No tension in his shoulders. Gone to the world. There’s less bandages wrapped around his head now, only a couple of layers. The cut at his hairline still has gauze pressed against it. It’s of profound relief to see him looking a little more like himself than when the medics first brought him in, but…

Behind the speech words, behind the horrid memory watching the Lions fall away from the explosion and the pain his muscles still haven’t quite forgotten…are the clone’s memories. To the real Shiro, they are vague and often blurry like pictures taken without focus, but the memory of Keith fighting for his life beneath Shiro’s – the clone’s – hands is startlingly vivid.

When they’d brought him in, Iverson had had to calm Shiro down from the ensuing panic attack.

_“I-I did this. Keith, he…I couldn’t do anything!”_

_“Shiro. He’s going to be okay.”_

_“No, I…” I almost killed him. Shiro can’t voice those words. He’s struggling to breathe._

_“He’s going to be okay. You’re tired. You’re freaking yourself out. Kogane’s in good hands. After the medics have finished assessing his injuries, they’ll have him settled in one of the rooms near the others. But you need to rest. “_

_“No. I can’t. It-it’s my fault, he…”_

_As Shiro breaks down into a sob, exhausted by things Iverson couldn’t even imagine and Shiro isn’t yet ready to talk about to anyone, even to Keith, Iverson pulls him into a rough embrace._

_“Come on, Captain. It’s about time you had some rest, too.”_

Keith’s still breathing. It would take a hell of a lot to take him out. He’s one of the strongest people Shiro has ever met. Colleen Holt, who he just saw when he visited Pidge, is another.

Shiro watches Keith a while longer before the flashbacks start knocking on the door and he has to take his leave.

 

\---- 

_Fourteen hours later_

The darkness is getting lighter. Not so heavy, not so dark.

He’s afraid of what awaits him and so he hides in it.

 

 

Voices.

…he drifts.

 

 

Familiar voices, tone low and accented.

He knows….who?....

…he drifts closer.

 

Their presence near him is warm. Safe. Solid. Black assures him they’re real.

 

…the darkness lifts.

Keith stirs. He opens his eyes and his gaze flicks to his Mum, in Blade uniform. He stares at her, weary. Kolivan’s smiling in the corner of the room. _Smiling…_

His Mum…Krolia…

…Kolivan…

He doesn’t realise his eyes shut on him until he feels a gentle hand on his shoulder. Keith blinks up at Krolia. He’s too drained to move his head but she doesn’t seem to mind.

“Hey,” she whispers. “Take your time. Sleep.”

He fights it to begin with, but the darkness comes rushing back to collect him like a tide. There’s little he can do but let it take him, and so he does.

The voices blend together and fade altogether. Keith sleeps.


	2. Take Your Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance visits a slow-recovering Keith. Shiro doesn't - even if he does, he isn't in there for long and Keith subconsciously notices the avoidance.
> 
> Keith realises that Shiro might be having a harder time dealing with what his clone did than he originally thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I write the best when I write spontaneously, on instinct. Chapter 1 of Too Late to Apologise was written that way, on the spur of the moment. Chapter 2 of this fic is a result of that same insistent urge to write on! :) (this fic was written as a one-shot, as just Chapter 1, then I realised there was more of this story to tell so decided to continue writing it)
> 
> Thank you so much everyone for all the kudos and the comments on Chapter 1!! <3

A full movement after the Lions fell, Lance is back on his feet. Keith is still bedridden. It leaves an uncomfortable churning in Lance’s stomach just thinking about it. Out of all of them, Keith is usually the first one to get back up again, the first one to insist they keep moving. Now, it’s the opposite: everyone else is up and he’s just…

It’s night by the time his family have all left. Lance sits on the edge of his bed and raises his arms above his head to stretch.

 _Time for a walk,_ he decides.

It’s not late, but the hallway is delightfully quiet. He’s been missing the energy of his family for pheobs, but even Lance has a limit to how much social interaction he can handle. Ironic, really, to be thinking about that now when he’s on his way to see someone else.

Lance knocks softly on the door of the second room down from his. He eases the door open just enough to poke his head inside.

“Hey, team leader,” he says, smiling. Lance steps inside and closes the door behind him. He plonks himself down in the chair at Keith’s bedside. “How’re you feeling?”

Keith’s lying on his back, arms resting at his side. His fingers curl into the blanket.

“You good?”

He grunts at Lance’s question and turns his head to face him. “Meh.”

“’Meh’? Is that Galran for ‘I feel like I got hit by the komar’ or something?”

The corner of Keith’s mouth curls. “Very funny.”

Noting the way he grimaces, Lance lowers his voice. “But yes?”

“Yeah…but I have no idea why,” he mumbles. “It’s not as if that ship was actually taking our energy or anything.”

Lance snorts. “You gotta put a little bit more effort into that sarcasm of yours, man. Ah, I’m kidding. It’s good to hear you again.”

Keith stares at him through half-closed eyes. He raises both eyebrows, but they only go as far as the bandage wrapped around his head.

“What? You’ve been in a coma for four days and the rest of us woke up after one! We were worried, man.”

“Oh…sorry. I didn’t realise.”

Lance frowns. “No one told you how long?” He thought Krolia and Kolivan had been in here with him. At least, that’s what Shiro had told him during his most recent rounds.

“I don’t remember being awake for long. Must’ve fallen back asleep. Just woke up half an hour ago.” Keith sighs. “How’s everyone else?”

“Yeah,” Lance says. “They’re doing pretty good. It’s mostly just fatigue that everyone’s dealing with really. Hunk had a bit of a minor concussion, but nothing serious.”

Keith blinks slowly. “That’s good.”

They sit in silence for a few minutes. Lance listens to Keith’s breathing start to even out and wonders if he’s drifted off to sleep again when he opens his eyes. A second later there’s a bright flash and Kosmo’s in the room with them.

Keith screws up his face and groans. “Kosmo…do you have to?” He reaches out a hand and rests it on the space wolf’s head. “You know you could come in through door like everyone else.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Lance grins. Kosmo ducks out of Keith’s reach and prods Lance’s leg with his nose. “Eh, Kosmo? Where’s the fun in that?”

“Traitor,” Keith murmurs.

Lance ruffles the wolf’s fur. In his peripheral, Keith’s eyes drift closed again. The wolf looks between the two of them and tilts his head to the side.

“I think I’ll leave you to get some rest,” Lance says, standing up. “Don’t want to keep you up when you should be sleeping.”

Keith frowns. He looks like he’s about to protest but then he drops it, seemingly too tired to spend any energy arguing. The exhaustion is so deep he doesn’t even open his eyes.

“Alright.” Lance starts heading for the door and then pauses. “And what about you, Kosmo? What are you going to do? You going to stay here with your buddy Keith?”

The wolf stares at him blankly. He watches Lance open the door without a change of expression.

“Take that as you’re staying here,” Lance says. “Good to see you, Keith.”

Keith doesn’t answer. Kosmo settles on the floor beside him and Lance steps out into the hallway.

 

 

 

Krolia’s leaning back into the chair, one leg crossed over the other, when Keith open his eyes again. He blinks hard, checking he’s not seeing things. He doesn’t even remember Lance leaving.

“You came back,” Keith murmurs.

Krolia’s face softens. She leans over and kisses his forehead. “I did, and so did you.”

The bandages are gone, Keith realises dimly. His head still aches, but he guesses it’s something. Maybe he’ll be able to stay awake for longer this time. 

“Kolivan. He looked a lot better,” Keith says quietly. “Did you guys find many other Blades?”

“It took us a while, but once we were in range of other bases it was easier to contact them. We had some help from the Olkari to reach the farthest bases.”

“Are they on their way?”

“They’re here now.”

Keith’s eyes widen at that. “Here already? As in, on Earth?”

Krolia nods. “Most of them came here with us. There are others who will be arriving with the last of the Rebel forces in a few quintants.”

“Wow…wait, the Rebels. So…does that mean Pidge’s brother, Matt, is here too?”

“Yes. Shiro spoke at a memorial service the Garrison held a couple of days ago, the day you woke. Many of the Alliance arrived in time to attend."

Hearing that Pidge’s entire family is back together is awesome, but the mention of Shiro’s name has Keith frowning. He knows he shouldn’t over think it, but he can’t help but wonder why he hasn’t seen him yet. Keith would like to think he’s just super busy, or that the times Shiro _has_ come in have been when he’s been asleep, but… he would’ve thought Shiro would’ve been in by now.

“Keith,” Krolia says. She’s always been good at reading his expressions. “What’s on your mind?”

He tries to think of the words to describe what’s concerning him but finds he can’t. Keith realises belatedly that he still hasn’t said anything to anyone about what happened at the facility. The others had probably taken a look at his face and the state both he and Shiro had come back in and guessed as far as ‘they got in a fight’, but the subject has never been breached.

“It’s…it’s probably nothing.”

Keith’s not sure how much of the fight Shiro remembers. It was the clone who attacked him, after all, not Shiro himself. He’s sure Shiro feels bad enough as it is about what happened, and that’s without talking about it. But maybe they need to. It’s easy for Keith to assume Shiro knows he doesn’t hold it against him in any way, but it could very well be something he needs to hear if he’s to really believe Keith forgives him.

 _No. It’s most certainly_ not _nothing._

“Hey, Mum?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you think Shiro…do you think he remembers what the clone did?”

Krolia hesitates. “Are you meaning does he remember the clone’s memories or does he remember something the clone _did?”_

Keith opens his mouth to reply but finds the words don’t come. He feels Krolia’s eyes come to rest on the mark on his cheek, something Keith still isn’t sure about. It doesn’t _feel_ like a burn, and it does look suspisciously similar to his mother’s Galran marks, but he has no other way of explaining how on earth it got there.

“Why don’t you ask Shiro?”

“And when am I going to see him next? I’m not sure why, but I get the feeling he hasn’t been around much.” Keith raises an eyebrow and stares Krolia directly in the eye. “Am I right?”

Krolia blinks. “To be completely honest, I don’t know. All I can say is that the sight of you while you were out may have been too overwhelming for him. He came in once while I was in here, stayed a minute and then left abruptly. It was odd. I didn’t press him. He’s got a lot to deal with at the moment.”

 _‘The sight of you while you were out may have been too overwhelming for him_.’

Question answered, Keith’s frown deepens. So Shiro probably _does_ remember.

Recalling the terrified look on Shiro’s face when he’d skidded to a halt beside Keith lying beaten on the Blade of Marmora floor, Keith closes his eyes. If there’s anything that truly scares Shiro, it’s watching his teammates get hurt and being powerless to stop it. And if Shiro knew exactly how close his clone had come to killing Keith…

“I need to talk to him,” he says, propping himself up on his elbows, ignoring the way the world starts to spin…

Krolia’s eyes flash and she pushes him back down and holds him there, a hand firmly on his chest. “If it’s that important, I’ll go and find him for you. But unless it’s an urgent matter, I suggest you wait – there’s still three hours before sunrise. Most people are sleeping.”

She only releases him when he forces himself to relax back into the support of the bed. Keith probably couldn’t make it to the door no matter how much he wanted to. Krolia’s right. She shouldn’t have to remind him not to overexert himself, especially when his head his aching the way it is.

“Rest for now,” Krolia murmurs. “It can wait till morning.”

Keith reluctantly agrees. With nothing to do but stare at the ceiling or talk, he eventually gives in to the lull of sleep. He shifts onto his side, draws the blanket over his shoulders and lets the darkness claim him.

 

 

 

_‘JuST lEt go, KEITHH.-‘_

_Pressure, the sole intent of_ kill, _he needs to drive the blade further down._

_‘-oul’ve aBANDOned yOU jusT LiKE your parenTS DID’._

_Keith’s exhausted. His strength won’t last._ He _won’t last. Just a little more and his arms will give. Shiro grits his teeth and presses his weight down into his hands. Just a little more._

_With a strangled scream, Keith has the Black bayard in his hands and the sword surges upward. Shiro gasps, electricity flares and –_

Shiro wakes with a jolt. His pulse is loud and accelerated in his ears, pounding in his chest. His muscles are tight and weak all at once. He’s shaking. There’s phantom pain in his right shoulder.

He’s not there. He’s not _him_. The memory isn’t his.

No, but the body is still the same.

Shiro waits until the adrenaline has worn off a little before slipping on a shirt and leaving his room. He pinches the bridge of his nose as he walks down the hallway past where the paladins are, where Keith is. He doesn’t stop walking until he gets to the coffee machine.


	3. More Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith would rather jeopardise his health than let Shiro continue to suffer silently. Shiro's having a hard time forgiving himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this turned into so many words! :O I've left the rating for this story at 'General Audiences' - if you feel that it should be listed as 'Teen and Up Audiences', please let me know. (I'm leaving it green based on the fact that anything potentially 'Teen and Up' has already been seen in the show, and also that the book series Warriors (Warrior Cats series by Erin Hunter) is in the Children's Fiction section at bookstores and libraries.) 
> 
> Thanks heaps everyone for your comments and kudos!! <3

There’s a knock on the door. Keith opens his eyes to daylight filling the room and an empty chair beside him. He shifts a little, wondering if it’s Shiro. It’s not – it’s Pidge.

Pidge flies across the room with a massive grin and wraps her arms around him in a loose hug.

“Good mornin’ to ye!” she says loudly in his ear.

Keith winces. “Ow, Pidge. Mind keeping the noise down?”

Pidge releases him and puts her hands on her hips. “No. No, I can’t. You wanna know why? Because coffee, that’s why! As in, _real coffee!_ You know how long I’ve waited to have _real coffee_?!”

The headache flares and spikes. Keith squeezes his eyes shut at a particularly bad wave of pain. He sits up enough so that he can lean forward and hold his head in his hands.

“Oh, oops. You weren’t kidding. Sorry.”

Keith groans. “It’s fine. Just…uh…concussion.”

“So how’re you doing, anyway?” Pidge asks.

He huffs out a sigh and glances sideways at her. “What does it look like?”

Pidge smirks. “You want the truth on that?”

“It was a rhetorical question, Pidge.”

“Like, ‘you think I don’t know what sarcasm sounds like’?”

Keith grunts. “Perfect example,” he says dryly. “Anyway, how are you? Besides the caffeine hit?”

“Better than Shiro, that’s for sure. You should’ve seen him. I doubt he got any sleep last night because that looked like his third cup of coffee already and it’s only seven in the morning.”

After the third word, everything else becomes a rambling blur. Maybe if Keith concentrated harder he’d be able to comprehend the rest of the sounds…

“Also, before I forget, Lance is getting everyone together for a group chill in a couple of hours if you’re up for it. I thought we could do a mission debrief, too, while we’re at it.”

Keith takes a deep breath, tries to focus. He replays Pidge’s words in his head until he is able to process what she’s saying. _‘If you’re up for it’…_ Up for what? The prospect of getting out of bed right now is tiring just thinking about it. Then there’s having to sit through the others’ loud exclamations and concentrate for what is likely to lead to an in-depth discussion…

Keith’s not sure he can do it.

“I’m sorry, Pidge.” He rubs his forehead and his fingertips brush over a healing cut at his hairline he hadn’t realised was there. “I…I’m not feeling all that great. You guys go ahead without me. I’ll catch up next time.”

Pidge shrugs. “Nah, that’s cool. It’s my bad, really. I’d kind of forgotten…” Her eyes flick to his forehead where the bandages used to be. “Shiro said you’d need a bit more time than the rest of us.”

“Shiro was here?” Keith whispers. “When?”

“Of course he was here! He made his rounds, like, every night – and every morning and whenever he came by, really. Always visited the rest of us first before seeing you.” Pidge scratches her temple. “Didn’t really think too much about it, to be honest, and then I bumped into him in the hallway when he was coming out of your room two or three days ago.” Pidge frowns. “He looked awful. I think he was on the verge of having a panic attack or something. He didn’t stick around. Went straight to his room, I think.”

_ShirO. ShIRO, I know you’re IN tHerE., we…are not going – !, ShiRo, we juST HAVe to Get BACk to the Castle._

“Keith?”

_JuST Let GO, KEIth. You doN’T NEEd to Fight anymore – …_

“Keith. You okay? You’re zoning out a bit there.”

Coming back to himself, back to _now_ , Keith realises his eyes are wide and he’s staring at a spot on the wall like it’s about to try to kill him. He swallows down the rising nausea.

“I think I might have an idea what this is about,” he says slowly. “About Shiro, I mean.” Keith narrows his eyes and looks up at Pidge, determined. “Can you take me to him?”

Pidge stares at him for a solid five seconds, unblinking. “Shouldn’t you be staying in bed? Like, no offense, but you don’t look so great. Have I already said that, or…?”

“Pidge. I can handle it. A bit of dizziness is nothing if it means Shiro stops stressing himself out.”

“I think you’ll find it’ll be more than a bit of dizziness,” she remarks. “Besides, I don’t think it’s as bad as you think it is. Can’t it wait to talk to Shiro?”

Keith digs his fingers into the blanket. “I’m not sure. But didn’t you say you _saw_ him on the verge of breaking down? Trust me, Pidge. Shiro likes to keep things internalised. If he accidently lets it show how stressed he is then you know it’s got to be bad – _screaming on the inside kind of bad_.”

“And why would he be so stressed? His PTSD hasn’t been too hard on him lately, has it?” Pidge pauses, considering. “I mean, there was finding out about Adam, and then us and he _has_ been pretty busy with Garrison leadership stuff, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying he’s ‘screaming on the inside’.”

“Because he wouldn’t want you know,” Keith mutters. “He hides these things. It’s his way of coping: he processes things better when he thinks them over on his own. Unfortunately, that’s also where he starts overthinking things.”

“Alright. Well, do you want to talk to him right now – as in, _right now_ – or can you wait?”

As much as Keith would rather lie down and curl back up under the blanket, he needs to do this. He needs to talk to Shiro. They’ve put this conversation off for far too long.

“Wait until when? He’s not going to come visit me if he’s worried about losing it,” Keith says. “He won’t be able to focus on whatever else he has to do, either. Shiro will just keep beating himself up about it.”

“Like keeping it internalised is going to be much better.”

“Exactly. Which is why, if you don’t mind helping me, I’d like to go and have this conversation with him now.”

“And what is this conversation about, might I ask?”

Pidge raises an eyebrow. Keith winces. It’s not something he likes to talk about…which is precisely why he’s never brought it up with Shiro or anyone for that matter. Mostly, it’s just that he has no idea _how_ to talk about it.

He tries anyway.

“…the fight we – ” Keith cuts himself off and rephrases. “His clone and I – the fight we had on the other side of the wormhole.”

Pidge purses her lips. “Oh, that one. Okay, yeah. I totally get why you’re worried now.” She gestures to the mark on his face. “That fight…it was a pretty bad one, wasn’t it?”

Keith looks away. He clears his throat. “Yeah…”

“Okay, here’s the deal,” Pidge says. “I’ll help you, but if you start feeling worse, I’m bringing you straight back here. Straight back here _immediately._ No questions asked _immediately._ Yeah?”

“Alright. Deal.” He flashes her a grateful smile. “Thanks, Pidge.”

Keith flips the blanket off of himself and swings his hospital-pants-clad legs over the side. It’s hardly a strenuous exercise but it leaves his arms feeling oddly weak. He frowns but doesn’t speak anything of it.

“Hmm. Still don’t like this,” Pidge says as she slings his left arm over her shoulders. “Even Hunk’s still in bed. You hurt your head a lot worse and took a lot longer to wake up than the rest of us. You really shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Pidge. I’m doing this. For Shiro.”

As soon as Keith’s on his feet, the blood drains from his face and room tilts and he starts to realise why Pidge is so concerned.

_But Shiro…_

Pidge tightens an arm around his waist. She doesn’t comment when Keith leans against her. They take slow, uneven steps and eventually make it to the other side of the room. The speed is painfully slow and Keith’s already finding it harder to get a decent breath in, but he doesn’t give in. He’s been hard out exhausted before and got through that; he can get through this.

But it’s more than exhaustion – exactly what Pidge had been trying to warn him about. The door opens and they only need to take one step out into the hallway before Keith’s overwhelmed.

“Keith?”

There’s too many lights, too bright and _moving_ and it’s – there’s people everywhere, moving, someone familiar looking in his direction, concerned, but their face is blurry – heck, _everything’s blurry_ and it’s noisy and it’s _too much._ He can’t. He can’t.

Keith groans. There’s more people in close proximity besides Pidge. White hair and an accent, and someone who looks like he could be Pidge’s double. Allura, in Garrison uniform, and Matt, in Rebel clothes. Allura’s hands are on his right shoulder and gripping his arm, and then Matt’s holding him up as he, Allura and Pidge shuffle him back into the room.

Through the nauseating spinning, he registers being sat down and then he’s eased back down onto his bed. Allura takes the blanket and shakes it out over him. Keith squeezes his eyes shut, tries to hide from the dizziness by pulling the blanket up over his face, but it doesn’t help. He feels likes he’s going to be sick if he moves even an inch.

“I told you it was a bad idea,” Pidge mutters.

Keith sucks in a breath. “Yeah…you weren’t wrong.”

Footsteps come marching in with a stride Keith recognises.

“What the hell, man?” Lance shrieks. Ignoring Keith’s grimace at the volume, he continues, “My niece just said you were out in the hallway? Have you ever heard of _taking it easy_ and _resting_?”

Keith rolls onto his side, overwhelmingly dizzy. His stomach churns and his head pounds, but it’s less nauseating than lying on his back. He groans into the pillow, refusing to answer Lance’s rebuke.

 _Guess I won’t be talking to Shiro,_ he thinks grimly.

Pidge says something and Matt laughs, commenting on how alike Keith and his sister are when they’re down. Restless, not knowing what’s good for them. Allura chuckles at that.

Kosmo decides to burst into the room then, and Krolia comes in. Keith switches off to whatever conversation is going on between everybody. The words are too jumbled and loud to make anything of them anyway. Lance eventually leaves and Matt takes Kosmo to meet Bae Bae. Allura takes her leave also, heading back out and on her way to test the new teludav.

“Sorry, Pidge,” Keith mumbles.

“Hey, I’m not the one looking like they had a really bad run in the flight simulator.”

Keith grunts. “I never had a bad run. What’re you talking about?”

It’s only then that he realises it’s just them again. He doesn’t dare open his eyes until his head stops spinning but he can sense that Krolia’s not in the room anymore.

 _That’s weird_ _she didn’t hang around to tell me off,_ Keith thinks. He doesn’t think any more of it. The headache he just earned himself is killing him already without adding _thinking_ to it..

“You gonna be alright?” Pidge asks. She sounds concerned. “Do you want me to get a nurse?”

“No…I’ll be fine. Just need to…not move…for a good while.”

“Should’ve thought about that beforehand, huh.”

“Hmm.”

Pidge is quiet for a moment and then she clicks her tongue. “Yeah, no. I’m getting a nurse. You’ve got a head injury, Keith. We don’t want it getting worse.”

Keith’s contemplating shooting her a sarcastic remark, but by the time he thinks of a comeback she’s already left the room. He takes a deep breath and tries to forget about Shiro and his clone and the fight. He tries not to think about what Shiro might be dealing with, but it’s near impossible.

 _He’s my brother. I should be there with him, helping him through it._ Instead, he’s stuck in bed and there’s nothing he can do but wait until he’s actually rested or wait until Shiro comes to him.

That’s a lot of waiting.

 

 

Krolia’s gaze is sharp. She leans against the doorway, arms folded over her chest in a very Keith-like manner. She doesn’t say anything, just raises an eyebrow pointedly when Shiro returns her questioning gaze.

Guilt weighs in Shiro’s gut like a rock. Allura glances over from her position at the newly constructed teludav. She takes her hands off them and tilts her head towards Krolia.

“Go on, Shiro,” the Princess says softly. “We can resume testing later.”

“Slav won’t be happy,” Shiro reminds her.

Krolia clears her throat. “He knows you’re avoiding him. Slav can wait. Keith can’t.”

Shiro heard what happened from Allura. How she found Pidge with a ghost in the hallway outside Keith’s room and how said ghost nearly fainted on them. Shiro had tried to convince himself that Allura was exaggerating but now that Krolia’s here with her intense gaze fixated on him, he knows she wasn’t.

 _Why, Keith?_ He wants to go down there and ask. _Why are you pushing yourself? You’re going to get yourself more hurt._ Because Shiro. Because him. That’s why. It’s his fault that happened because he should’ve been down there earlier.

Allura approaches him and lays a hand on his shoulder. “Go on, Shiro. Coran’s coming up in a couple of dobashes. We’ll handle this.”

Reluctantly, Shiro nods. “Alright. Thanks, Allura.” He goes.

Of all the things to make him nervous to the point of panicking, it’s absurd that talking to Keith is one of them. _He’s my brother for crying out loud!_ Maybe that’s it. Keith’s his brother and he hurt him. His _clone_ hurt him. Shiro could’ve warned him at least, somehow….somehow. He’d tried reaching out to Lance, sure, but that hadn’t been enough. Shiro hadn’t been enough.

_‘Shiro. You’re my brother. I love you,’ Keith says, grunting as Shiro presses his weight into his hands to force the white hot blade closer and closer to Keith’s neck –_

It’s too much. Shiro’s made it down one flight of stairs before he has to beeline it to a bathroom. He locks himself in a stall. The tears are already flowing.

He’d come so close to killing Keith. He’d suppressed the memories because they were never his. That was never him, but it was still his clone and that clone of himself had been _so driven to drive that blade through Keith’s throat - !_

By the time Shiro has recomposed himself, enough to at least not look like he’s all adrenaline and haunted-by-memories-that-aren’t-his-but-may-as-well-be-they’re-so-traumatising… Keith’s already asleep. There’s a nurse at his bedside and an IV linked to his arm. The nurse is busy monitoring and frets when she doesn’t get a salute in in time, but Shiro flashes her a smile of reassurance, hoping it doesn’t show on his face what a mess he is. She doesn’t seem to notice.

“Um, do you know when he’ll be awake next?” Shiro asks, voice a little unsteady.

 _He’s okay. He’s just sleeping. You’re in a room at the hospital at the Garrison, on Earth. Not…not_ there. _Not_ then. Keith’s resting on his side, the mark on his cheek exposed. _No. Ground yourself, Shiro. You’re not there._

“Whenever he’s ready,” the nurse replies. “He just needs more time to rest. No pushing it. Are you staying?”

“I - ”

“If you’re here when he wakes, make sure he knows not to rush himself. Healing takes time, as you will know. He needs to be resting.”

 _It’s my fault,_ Shiro wants to say. There’s no logical explanation for it, though. Indirectly, sure, Shiro may be partially at fault, but it’s not enough reason to be blaming himself like this. _But it was my clone…_

The nurse leaves. It’s just him and Keith. Shiro feels the flashbacks, the clone’s memories creeping up on him in seconds. The adrenaline never left him. The panic never left him. He’s hyperventilating and he wishes Keith would roll over and talk to him because right now he’s so still and the voices in Shiro’s head are so _loud._

Krolia’s a few paces away from the doorway when he silently excuses himself. Shiro doesn’t stick around to read whatever disappointment or understanding or questioning that might be in her gaze.

It’s ridiculous that, now of all times – after how many pheobs? – the reality of what happened at the facility is hitting him. Maybe Shiro had been too caught up in adjusting to living in a body, been too ‘busy’ going through the motions of space travel and coordinating a war effort in an intergalactic war that has now reached Earth…

…maybe he’d been too busy trying to forget things he wished he could forget.

Keith’s not the only one who needs more time.


	4. It's Been Long Enough

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro's exhaustion catches up to him. Krolia decides enough is enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was supposed to be a oneshot. It then became a four chapter story, and now it's become more!
> 
> I've decided to write a Part Two: It's Time Now, focusing on issues that may not have been addressed with other characters (e.g., Griffin learning just how deep his younger-self's comment cut Keith, some apologies regarding what was said in space, seeing how Allura's adapting to Earth (and Coran and Romelle)....)
> 
> Thank you everyone for your kudos and comments!! <3 <3

_The Black Lion’s eyes are dull. Shiro’s trying so hard to keep it together but he’s too exhausted for his efforts to have any effect. He feels Iverson’s eye on him as the vehicle pulls up at the crash site. He doesn’t say anything. Griffin, who drove them out, reports their arrival over the comms but Shiro’s not listening to anything anymore._

_He’s not going to be okay until he knows what state Keith is in. Maybe not even then._

_He’s out of the vehicle before it’s parked. Nobody stops him. Keith still hasn’t responded to any of their calls and neither has Black. Shiro reaches out mentally as he runs but his connection with Black is weak. The_ Lion _is too weak. But Shiro feels her presence all the same and that in itself is reassuring._

_Shiro lays the palm of his human-clone-human hand on Black’s nose. “Let me in, girl.”_

_No response. The metal is simultaneously hot and cold through his glove. Shiro chokes on the incoming tide of panic. The quiet is far too loud. Keith is within metres yet is still unreachable._

_“Please, Black. Let me in.” Shiro gives up trying to keep his voice steady. “Let me…I need to get to Keith! Black! Open up!”_

_He’s aware of Iverson standing a couple of paces to the right. Griffin and the two medical staff stand behind him, some distance away. The dam inside Shiro breaks and he starts screaming as the tears start to escape._

_That parasitic robeast they fought – that Voltron fought, mostly – had sucked the quintessence via the Black Lion, via Keith. As soon as those sickles penetrated Black’s metal, the first energy source it would’ve tapped into would’ve been Keith’s and Blacks. There’s a deep-seated fear that, because Keith was therefore probably the most drained of all the paladins, he wouldn’t have the strength to pull through. The others – Shiro believes they have it in them. But if Keith took the brunt of the komar-like attack, then the proximity to the explosion and the subsequent crash-landing to Earth could be fatal._

_“Shiro,” Iverson says after a few minutes. “Do we need to try a forced entry?”_

_The wind in the valley whistles. Shiro clenches his fists. He doesn’t make a sign of acknowledging Iverson’s suggestion. You can’t force a Lion to expose its paladin. For all they know, Black not opening up could be the very thing that’s protecting Keith._

_It could also be the very thing that ends him._

_“BLACK! You_ have _to let me it! Keith, he’s…COME ON!”_

_His desperation must register this time. There’s a deep mechanical whir and the Lion’s jaws part just enough for someone to crawl through. Shiro exhales sharply and manoeuvres himself through the gap._

_It’s pitch black between Black’s jaws and the cockpit. The cockpit itself is dimly lit, grey light flooding in through the Lion’s eyes. Shiro braces himself against the tilt of the floor. He leans his weight against the doorway as he scans the cockpit, overloaded with adrenaline and denial._

_There’s no body lying on the floor. There’s no abnormal shape to the pilot seat’s silhouette. There’s no tell-tale luminescent blue of paladin armour._

_Keith’s not here._

“…Shiro?”

_It takes Shiro a minute to recover from the shock. All he can think about is the time he spent in Black’s consciousness, his body gone, his existence existing on there. He thinks of Keith standing there in the infinite mindscape, alone…_

_….dead._

“Shiro. Hey, you with me?”

Sam Holt is directly in front of his face. Shiro lets out a sharp breath, blinking. The cockpit is replaced by the control tower. Distantly, he hears Coran speaking with Allura about something teludav-related. Sam’s expression is one of great concern.

“Do you want to take a break?”

“It’s fine, Sam. I…” Shiro struggles to regain composure. He’s not he’s all that convincing. “I apologise for zoning out like that.”

Sam sighs. “Let me rephrase: do you _need_ to take a break? These last two weeks have been hard on you,” he says softly. “Don’t feel like you’re not entitled to rest a while.”

Shiro shakes his head. His rationale is that he needs the work to keep his mind off things. The moment he stops being busy, the guilt that he’s been avoiding Keith and the remnant fright of believing him to be dead and the exhaustion of having a panic attack every time he goes to see him gets too overwhelming. Then there’s the flashbacks that don’t even leave him alone when he sleeps…

He'd thought he’d be okay. Although his consciousness was in the clone’s body, the clone’s brain hadn’t been subjected to all the chemical changes Shiro’s real body’s brain had – he’d thought that by rights his past trauma shouldn’t affect him as it once did. He hadn’t been sure of how true or not that theory was until he’d gone to get Keith after the Lions fell.

Keith hadn’t been dead. Shiro just hadn’t been able to see him from where he’d been standing. Once he made his way to front of the cockpit, he’d found Keith, body slumped over the left control stick. One of Keith’s arms was trapped between the lever and his torso, the other hanging limply in the air. A corner of the helmet’s ‘glass’ had shattered, a piece of it angled inwards. Keith’s breathes were strained and shallow, but there. His pulse had been weak, but there.

He’d been fine carrying Keith out of there. He’d been fine on the ride back to what was left of the Garrison’s base. He’d been fine…up until the point the medical staff had slipped Keith’s hand out of Shiro’s grip.

The ensuing panic attack had freaked Shiro out just as much as Keith’s unresponsiveness. It hadn’t helped that he was already exhausted from the battle, the fight with Sendak, transforming the Atlas, discovering the Lions offline and their paladins silent…

Sam and Iverson were the ones to get Shiro through it. Iverson’s steady tone and Sam’s reassuring words. Shiro owes it them not to ignore when they ask him to rest. It’s not that they think he’s incapable like this, it’s that they’ve seen just how deep Shiro’s exhaustion runs and they care to the point that they’ll turn the suggestion of resting into an order if they have to.

“Okay,” Shiro murmurs. He maintains eye contact a second more before turning his attention to his feet. “I’ll…I think I will take a bit of a break.”

Sam’s hand lands on his shoulder. He gives it a rough squeeze. “Go get yourself a decent coffee. Rhyner brought over some Olkari equivalent, so don’t feel like you need to be too conservative.”

Shiro nods. He takes a deep breath and flashes Sam a tired smile. He whispers, “Thank you, sir,” then takes a step back and leaves the control tower.

 

 

\------

 

Keith’s eating his first solid meal in over a week. It feels weird in his stomach and it’s hard to swallow normally, but it’s better than having to rely on sickly nutritional drinks and an IV stuck in his arm. The hideous bout of dizziness finally passed, he doesn’t feel like anything’s going to come back up but he’s still wary.

 “Oh, and I should probably also tell you,” Pidge continues with a grin. “They’re going to be here any second.”

Keith has mentally force himself to swallow the mouthful of what may as well be food goo. “Would it have hurt to ask me first?”

In other words, the next group hangout happening in his room is something he never consented to. In other words, he’s trapped…although it’s not like he could go anywhere, anyways. Keith’s under strict orders: he’s to stay in bed unless he’s in need of the en-suite bathroom. Period. For once he obeys orders. He didn’t really like feeling like he was in an out-of-control spacecraft simulator again, Keith for once obeys them.

“Maybe I’m not really up to talking too much,” he mutters, putting down the spoon.

Pidge doesn’t look up, just continues typing away at her laptop. “I don’t know. You seemed pretty eager last time.”

“Last time? No, I didn’t. I said – ”

“You got me to help you walk out into the hallway, hoping to find Shiro so that you could _talk to him_. I think that counts?”

Keith sighs and picks up the spoon again. “You’re not going to let me forget about that, are you?”

Pidge looks up at him then. “No, I’m not. Not until you’re discharged, which you could’ve been sooner had you not pushed yourself.”

“How was I meant to know I was going to end up dizzy like that?”

“By taking it slow and letting me know before you collapse that you’re not feeling great.”

“I didn’t collapse!”

“Yeah, you did. You just didn’t hit the floor because we caught you.”

“Meh.”

Pidge throws her hands up in exasperation. “You have a head injury, Keith! This isn’t just some kind of cold or what have you. If you don’t take care of yourself, no matter how tedious and boring and frustrating that may be, you’re just going to end up doing more damage in the long run. You don’t want that.” She lowers her voice, brow furrowed. “ _None_ of us want that.”

As if on cue, there’s a knock on the door. But it’s not Hunk or Lance, or Allura.

It’s Krolia.

“Keith,” she says after examining the couple of remaining spoonfuls of food goo in the bowl. “You’re coming with me.”

Keith frowns. “What? Where?”

“Shiro.”

With a glance at Pidge, Keith sets the spoon down again. Krolia rolls the table to the side and stands in front of Keith with her hands on her hips. She seems to think for a moment before turning around and lowering herself into a crouch.

“Get on,” Krolia says. “I’ll carry you.”

Keith doesn’t move. “I, uh…I can walk?”

“Either you get on my back or I’ll carry you there in my arms. Make your choice.”

Pidge giggles as Keith’s face heats up. “Better make up your mind, quick.”

Judging by the line of tension in Krolia’s shoulders, she’s not leaving the room unless it’s with Keith. He really has no option, he realises, but still…

“Could we at least get a wheelchair?” he asks weakly.

His mother throws him an impatient glare over her shoulder.

“No?”

Pidge’s eyes light up. “Does Shiro happen to be near the coffee machine, by any chance?”

Krolia grimaces. “I’m not the only one who noticed, then.”

“Oh…yeah, Keith? You’ll want to go. Now.”

Keith glances between the two, confused. “Okay, okay. I’ll go. But can someone explain to me what’s going on and why Shiro plus coffee machine equals this kind of urgency?”

“I’ll tell you on the way,” Krolia says. “But you’ll see for yourself soon enough. Now come on. Before he disappears.”

 _…disappears_. That word explains plenty.

Pidge sets her laptop aside and helps Keith get his legs free of the blanket. Krolia raises her hands over her shoulders for Keith to hold onto, then pulls him forward. Keith takes a deep breath and leans into her. Krolia rises out of her crouch, releasing Keith’s hands to scoop his legs around either side of her.  Keith grits his teeth against the tilting of the room and tightens his grip on his arms.

“There,” Pidge says from down below. “Not so hard, huh?”

“We’ll see,” Keith manages.

Krolia doesn’t wait around. It makes Keith nervous to think of what state Shiro’s got himself into. It must be pretty bad – screaming on the inside but desperately trying not to let it show kind of bad. _Did he have a flashback?_ Keith wonders. He doesn’t think it would be a nightmare since there’s no way anyone could convince Shiro to take a nap this close to midday.

From his vantage point on Krolia’s back, Keith watches as everyone who crosses their path takes a wide berth to let them through. He’s not sure how to feel about that. He isn’t sure if it’s because they’re not used to seeing someone being carried down the hallway, because it’s someone Galra who’s carrying him or if it’s because they know that Krolia’s his mother. Probably a mix of all three, he decides.

Whichever combination it is, it’s embarrassing to be seen like this. It’s utterly humiliating. He’s…however old he is now, and he’s being carried on his mother’s back through the hallways of a military facility where _everyone knows who he is._ Keith sees the recognition in their eyes. He sees the surprise, the downright astonishment, the ‘woah, you don’t see this every day’ expressions….

He spends the rest of the walk to the reserved Voltron office-hangout room staring at the floor and losing himself in the strange familiarity of his mother’s steps.

When they get to the room, Krolia shifts her weight and knees the door handle open. Only then does Keith allow himself to look up. His stomach churns when he sees Shiro.

It’s just him in the room, hunched over a steaming cup of what smells to be Olkari coffee. The cup is clear and the coffee is black. Shiro looks like he lost a game of chess against himself. The lines beneath his eyes seem to grow deeper when he catches sight of Keith and Krolia.

Without a word, Krolia deposits Keith in the seat across the table. Shiro is sitting ramrod straight now, eyes wide. Krolia fixes a stern glare on Shiro.

“You two are going to talk,” she murmurs.

It sounds as though she’s going to say more but she doesn’t. Krolia’s made her point. She’s staying with them to make sure that point is clear.

Shiro looks stricken. “Keith. You look like you should be in bed.”

Keith grunts. “The room is spinning, but I’ll be fine.”

“What…what are you doing here?”

“Came to find you,” Keith mutters. “You wouldn’t come and I need to talk to you about…about what happened at the facility. Pidge told me you weren’t doing so great.”

“I…” The colour drains from Shiro’s face, leaving him even more _shiro…_ _shiroi_ … white _._ “I never said anything about...”

“But I’m right?”

Shiro glances at the mark on Keith’s cheek and then the floor beneath his feet.

Keith frowns. “That wasn’t you.” Straight to the point.

“No, I know it wasn’t,” Shiro says, not looking up, “but that doesn’t excuse the fact that – ”

“That wasn’t you.”

“Yes, I realise that, but – “

“ _Shiro._ ”

Keith waits until Shiro meets his gaze. He waits, patiently, for Shiro to recollect his thoughts. Krolia shifts in her leaning against the bench where the coffee machine is. She says nothing.

“Sometimes I see it,” Shiro begins quietly. “I see what he saw.” There’s a long pause as he fumbles to find the right words. “I…it’s like my body  - _his body_ – remembers it even though his consciousness isn’t in here anymore, like this body’s brain still remembers it even if my own consciousness wasn’t technically connected to it at the time. And I just – ,“ he gestures at Keith with a vague wave of his hand. “…seeing you after we pulled you out of the Black Lion, I haven’t been able to stop _remembering_ all those things: the fight, the way he just…I could’ve killed you, Keith. He could’ve killed you.”

Shiro’s words end in a note of despair. Keith doesn’t rush in to reassure him. He sits, and he waits, and he listens to how those words resound in the silence, how they replay in his head. The refrigerator hums. Keith’s stomach gurgles. In the hallway outside, Iverson’s gruff voice directs a couple of officers awaiting orders.

“It’s fine,” Keith says eventually. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault, any of it. You know that.”

Shiro looks like he’s about to protest. Keith holds up a hand and closes his eyes. He’s having difficulty thinking of how to explain what he’s feeling without recalling the sheer terror that had coursed through him when fake-Shiro had come after him. The silence in the room is expectant, though somewhat apprehensive.

Keith opens his eyes and watches the steam rising from Shiro’s coffee while he thinks. “Alright,” he says. “Perhaps it could’ve gone a bit better? Like, I dunno – _maybe_ the other Paladins could’ve done more to prevent things turning as sour as they did, but…we got you back in the end, didn’t we? The real you. If the clone hadn’t gone berserk – if-if he hadn’t _attacked me_ – then you’d still be in Black’s consciousness. Haggar would’ve still been able to control him and… a whole bunch of other stuff, I guess. I don’t know.

“All I know is, if things hadn’t gone down the way they had, you wouldn’t be here with us now. And without you here, we would’ve lost that fight. Sendak would’ve had us killed, he’d have taken the Lions and destroyed Earth, and then who knows how long it would take before he destroyed the rest of the resistance.

“All these people around us are still here because you gave them – you gave _us_ – a chance to fight. That wouldn’t have happened if me and your clone hadn’t had that fight.”

From the side, Krolia hums in agreement. “Butterfly effect, I think you call it.”

Shiro’s in tears. There’s a bitter hurt echoing in the sobs he tries to suppress. Keith’s heard Shiro cry like this only once, when Adam cut off their engagement and Shiro blamed himself entirely. These are the painful kind of tears, the kind that Shiro desperately tries to hide – even from himself.

Keith tries not to think what it would’ve been like for Shiro had his clone actually finished him off, stuck in Black’s consciousness while Black roared at the death of another paladin slain…

 _It haunts him,_ Keith realises. _It terrorises Shiro to know how close a replica of himself came to killing someone so close to him._ He remembers Krolia’s words then, what she’d said a few days ago when Keith first brought the issue up with her.

 _‘The sight of you while you were out may have been too overwhelming for him_.’

That explains the avoidance. It explains why Shiro’s more a mess than he should be.

Keith sucks in a breath and stands. Leaning heavily on the table, he makes his way around to Shiro. Krolia hovers a step behind him, but Keith’s determined to make it on his own strength. He does. Shiro steers him around the back of the chair he’s sitting in as Krolia pulls out the one beside Shiro. Keith takes a couple of shaky steps backwards until the backs of his knees bump against the chair, then he lets himself collapse into it.

Wasting no time, he leans forward and pulls Shiro into a hug.

“It’s not your fault,” he murmurs into Shiro’s uniform. “You don’t have to blame yourself anymore, ‘kay.”

Shiro’s voice contorts in a sob, something deep and wrangled and off-tone. He angles himself so he’s facing Keith and wraps him up in an embrace of his own. Shiro drops his head down so that his face is buried in the fabric of Keith’s hospital shirt. Keith glances up at Krolia questioningly, but she shakes her head with a soft smile.

“’m sorry, Keith,” Shiro croaks. His shoulders shake. “I’m so sorry!”

Keith doesn’t say anything to that. He rubs a hand in circles over Shiro’s back, firm and slow and repetitive.

“Let it out,” he whispers. “It’s been enough time.”

Shiro cries all the more harder. At some point, the door eases open and closes softly. Sam Holt. His expression softens when he sees the two of them. Keith keeps rubbing Shiro’s back. Sam comes over and lays a hand on Shiro’s shoulder and an arm around Keith’s. Krolia joins the hug, too, and in that they have Shiro wrapped up in a much needed, long overdue hug.

They hold him as the flood tears itself free and they hold him as it peters out. They hold him as the true weight of Shiro’s exhaustion sweeps over him and makes itself known.

When they release him, but Keith doesn’t. He lets Shiro cling to him long enough to hear him whisper, “Thank you.”


End file.
